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Engagement

The Digital Employee Experience (DEX): A Guide to Technological Standards For Any Company

Technology is used in many different industries for numerous types of jobs so reliable connection and devices should be the standard!

Authored by 
Christina Lundin
Christina is deeply committed to building strong, lasting relationships with clients. With several years of experience, she has a consultative approach to understand each client’s unique needs and deliver tailored solutions. As an extension of your team, Christina brings fresh ideas that drive ongoing success and long-term growth.
Reviewed by 
Kara Surrena
Kara Surrena is a seasoned executive with 20 years of experience leading teams and driving exponential growth in the SaaS software industry.
A group of people attentively watching a presentation on a large screen in a meeting room.

When starting a new job, it is important for the company that you are working for to get the necessary devices, links, accounts, and logins set up for you upon arrival. Whether you need access to specific company websites, a VPN, an email address, or a new computer, it’s important for staff to have the full and reliable digital employee experience (DEX) to get them off to a successful start with the company.

Digital employee experience–or DEX for short–is the holistic quality of how staff interact with technology within the workplace, and this can be broken down into the devices you use, the connection, and the useful applications that are needed. There are a number of factors that go into DEX to set staff members up for success within the company, and evaluating a business on their own DEX standards can help to boost employee quality, engagement, and productivity.

Let’s take a deep dive into what DEX specifically is and how it can help to improve an employee’s success within a company!

What Actually is DEX? How to Define the Success of Distributing Technology to Staff Successfully

Building a solid technological foundation can help to improve a company’s standing and build a better employee experience!

A futuristic digital marketing concept featuring advanced technology and data analytics visuals.
Having a reliable DEX within a company can help to create a more positive workplace, along with boosting engagement and productivity with staff. Image courtesy of HRD America.

It’s important to get your staff started off on the right foot whenever they start their position at your company, and this includes setting them up with all of the technology and tools that they’ll need in order to succeed. From their own work email address, a reliable laptop, and access to applications to create content and work on daily jobs tasks, having a strong foundation in DEX is useful for every company.

What Defines DEX?

When it comes to DEX, it’s the holistic quality of how your employees interact with the technology that they are given. This can come down to the cell phone, tablet, or laptop that they use, or even how reliable the internet or VPN connection is in order to do their daily responsibilities and tasks. DEX can help to measure, manage, and overall improve the way that technology is used throughout the workplace to make sure that everything is working as it should.

For example, there is nothing more frustrating than when servers are down, which means that sending out important emails is temporarily disabled. This can prevent staff from properly communicating with one another or lead to security risks–which can be a huge issue depending on the company and if they’re handling personal information from clients. Having the right tools, IT team, and access to help is essential for having a reliable DEX in any type of business. 

What Are the Most Important Components of DEX?

When breaking down DEX, it’s important to go over the most important types of components that create a successful experience for staff to complete the work they need. 

Here’s a breakdown of the most crucial components of any DEX needed for staff and the standards that every company should hold for their IT team and technology:

  • A proactive IT team ready to identify network issues, fix device crashes, and help remedy the cause of slow internet or VPN connections
  • Making sure that new hires are immediately set up with the proper device, applications, and logins necessary to start completing their duties
  • Ensuring reliable performance monitoring is occurring with checking CPU and memory usages to ensure employee’s tools are working accordingly
  • Creating a digital unified workspace with centralized app portals to prevent the memorization of multiple usernames and passwords
  • Making sure that hybrid work optimization is top-notch to provide a secure connection plus high-performance access to company resources

Is DEX Only For Remote or Hybrid Jobs?

It is quite common to see that a proper DEX is in place for remote or hybrid jobs–especially considering that staff don't have access to IT services in-person at an on-site location. DEX isn’t only common to have in place for remote or hybrid jobs, but also for many in-person ones as well. In fact, a reliable DEX system is important for all employees, no matter their position, field, or industry that they work for.

DEX systems are important to ensure smooth, productive days with the technology that is needed to complete their duties during their shift. Bad technology can affect anyone, no matter if it’s in-person, hybrid, or remotely–so it’s crucial to have a reliable team behind DEX in workplaces to provide a consistent day-by-day experience to prevent productivity loss with slow applications and connections. 

How Can a Reliable DEX Improve Company Morale?

Having a working DEX system that is quick to act when there are issues is a great way to boost employee engagement!

Three individuals stand in front of a large screen, engaged in discussion or presentation.
Having a DEX system in place can help to boost employee engagement, productivity, and morale with properly working technology.

No matter the type of business or industry your company belongs in, it’s important to have a reliable DEX system in place with cell phones, tablets, and laptops that work, a secure and smooth connection, and reliable applications with easy logins to get the job done. If you have all of these checked off, it can help to boost employee engagement and productivity, but it’s important to know the details on how it does.

Reduces Frustration With Problematic Technology and Connections

One of the biggest frustrations for anybody is being behind on their work due to technical problems. While it is something that is completely out of the staff member’s hands, it can cause unnecessary stress on top of the work that they are already late on or the progress that they have now lost. 

Having a solid DEX strategy in place eliminates this frustration that so many staff members deal with and instead increases confidence that their IT team can help resolve issues quickly with less time wasted for employees. It also provides less time with troubleshooting and navigating the inner workings of complex systems that can be difficult or harder on an IT team. 

Creates a Better Work-Life Balance

A goal that is very common between any working person is to have a work-life balance that works for them. Being able to separate yourself from daily work stress or difficulties is essential to enjoy your time off-the-clock, and a solid DEX strategy can help with this as well. 

A DEX system that works successfully can help to create a solid work-life balance for staff in a number of ways–and some of those are simply by reducing any technology-induced stress, helping to automate mundane tasks with centralized documentation, and setting up successful digital boundaries that help to respect an employee’s offline hours. 

This also especially helps hybrid and remote workers by giving them reliable, high-performance tools and secure connections to ensure that there are no complications with solid IT support when needed. 

Empowers Staff With the Right Tools They Need

Not only does a proper DEX strategy include the devices and connections needed to make any team successful at doing their job, but it also comes down to the applications and other tools that are used as well. With DEX, there is empowerment through personalization–but what exactly does that mean? 

Empowerment through personalization simply means the applications or digital tools that are used to set up staff for what they need to succeed. Whether this is the utilization of AI, performance management applications, and even ones for communication and productivity. Some of these popular apps can consist of Slack, Asana, Microsoft Teams, and other popular options to better streamline workflows, 

Can Increase Recognition and Visibility Within the Workplace

There is no better feeling for staff than to be recognized for the achievements that you accomplish. Sharing work milestones or recognizing your staff is a great way to boost overall company morale and keep staff happy and valued within their positions. A solid DEX strategy can also help to contribute to the visibility of staff to ensure that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. 

Digital platforms can be used within the DEX strategy that can send out public shoutouts for an employee’s hard work, but also celebrate work milestones and birthdays–which can boost employee engagement plus help staff to feel appreciated. 

Add Digital Signage to Any DEX Strategy to Bridge Physical and Remote Workplaces

Digital signage is a great technological tactic to use when you want  to boost internal communications, productivity, and streamline operations!

Digital signage comes with a ton of benefits to add to any DEX strategy and build a positive and communicative staff. 

Creating a DEX system that works well within your business can be difficult to get up and running immediately, but with the right tools, devices, and secured connections, you’ll be ready in no time to create a more technologically advanced work environment for your staff. Digital signage is also a great addition to any DEX strategy with a wide variety of content management systems (CMS) to choose from to create interactive content to further engage with staff as well.

What is Digital Signage?

Digital signage comes in three parts–the LED/LCD screen or monitor, a reliable internet connection, and a CMS platform to create content to display. Adding digital signage into any DEX strategy is a great way to up employee engagement, improve internal communications with the right tools, present company news and upcoming events, and even a way to recognize staff for their hard work.

A CMS platform allows staff to create content to present on any digital signage screen. Many platforms offer pre-made templates for easy content creation, remote management capabilities to edit, manage, or schedule content anywhere at any time, and advanced workflow management and automation. It allows users to have the creativity to create content that will appeal and engage with their staff, boost morale, and overall make a positive difference in their team. 

Choose Shift as Your Go-To CMS Platform

Out of the many CMS platforms to choose from, there is none quite like Shift, which aims to help companies improve relationships with employees, deepen them, and create a team of staff that feels valued and appreciated. With top-notch content creation capabilities, users can create employee spotlight content or streamline workflows with key performance indicators (KPIs) to keep staff on track, efficient, and boost productivity and engagement. 

Shift also has remote management–also known as the Content Navigator–that allows users to update, modify, edit, or publish content from any device for any screen at any time. 

There are a number of valuable features available to those who are interested in Shift to help improve employee engagement such as:

  • Boost employee engagement through recognition and appreciation
  • Celebrate staff birthdays, work anniversaries, and other achievements
  • Show training videos
  • Employee spotlights
  • Interactive polls for staff to anonymously complete
  • Expands internal communications 
  • Allows staff to retrain and re-skill in key trainings
  • Helps leaders learn more about staff
  • Encourages employees to do work harder
  • Increases productivity  
  • Create diverse content using pictures, videos, or documents
  • Use as a wayfinding and navigation system
  • Broadcast company announcements, updated policies, etc.
  • Use to post emergency alerts
  • Streamline workflow and post frequent updates about each day’s tasks

Add Shift to Your Digital Signage and  DEX Strategy to See an Improvement in Your Staff

Making sure that your staff has the best and most reliable resources possible in order to complete their daily duties is crucial for any job. No matter if it’s a brand new laptop, a secure connection or VPN, or or simply an email address to communicate internally or externally, a DEX strategy is essential for any job no matter if it’s in-person, hybrid, or remote.

Consider adding digital signage and Shift in your DEX system to see how it can make a difference in your team today!

Authored by 
Christina Lundin
Christina Lundin is a Customer Success leader at Shift platform, where she helps organizations across corporate communications, hospitality, and logistics transform how they connect with their frontline workforce. She partners with executives, operators, and managers to ensure critical messaging is delivered clearly, consistently, and in real time—where work actually happens. With a strong focus on execution, Christina designs communication strategies that cut through noise, align teams, and drive measurable outcomes—from operational efficiency and compliance to employee engagement and retention. Known for her hands-on, solutions-driven approach, she works as an extension of her clients’ teams, helping them turn communication into a competitive advantage on the front lines.
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Reviewed by 
Kara Surrena
Kara Surrena is a seasoned executive with 20 years of experience leading teams and driving exponential growth in the SaaS software industry.
Read More
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